Hannibal's house, Sunday

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal was enjoying a nice, quiet day at home. He'd had a few too many of those lately, but since someone (Jono) had decided that his hobby gave them extra work, he was indulging in other ways; at the moment, he was composing on theremin.

Classes started tomorrow, so hopefully things would pick up a bit.


[OOC: Open post!]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

"I would ask if she might consent to hypnotism, but if you've been inside her mind and unable to determine the cause, I'm uncertain that would help. Unless," he amended, looking at Jono thoughtfully, "we could combine the two? Hypnotism to put her in a more relaxed and receptive state of mind, and you to peer in and see what you can?"

[furnaceface]

//I... would be amenable to that, but only if she is,// Jono replied, nodding a little. //My own hangups about poking around in people's minds while they can't consent or deny me permission to something aside, if this is something as serious as I'm afraid it might be...//

He... had no idea.

//I don't want to kill her again,// he added, softly.

With a kiss, like the last time, after everyone else had taken a go at her, first.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Of course," Hannibal agreed. "Would you like to ask her, or should we go together, do you think?"

[furnaceface]

//Possibly the both of us together, I'm not sure,// Jono admitted, and then he was pacing again, so help him. //You're better at tact than I am, maybe the both of us, and you can kick me in the bloody shin if I'm about to say something stupid. And... lord, I haven't even told Karla. Somebody needs to tell Karla.//

Karla had every right to know that this was going on.

Karla needed to know.

[sharp_as_knives]

"She needs to know," Hannibal agreed. "She may even be able to help, if only to reassure Raven."

[furnaceface]

//And as her Queen... and doubly so, as a new mother, if this is going on in her territory, in her home...// Jono shrugged. //I'm loathe to break this to her until after she's got her Craft back, though. She's a Black Widow and Healer, which is going to make her want to dive right in... and Raven's Queen, which makes her obligated to.//

Not to mention her friend. Family.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Is this something that can wait a few weeks?" Hannibal asked. "We've no idea how long it's been going on already."

[furnaceface]

//I hate putting it off,// Jono murmured, //but for all I know, this could go back as far as the carnival, or the attempt on Karla's life. Either way, our hands are tied. There's nothing we can do right now, without knowing more.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"And you think we should wait for Karla to give birth." Hannibal spread his hands. "You've seen Raven more closely than I have these weeks; I will bow to your judgement."

[furnaceface]

//There's no way we could possibly tell Karla without then having to worry about Karla turning around and doing something exceptionally idiotic. She let a demon disembowel Warren once for Raven's sake. I'd prefer to wait at least until she has Craft, so that she's not risking herself or,// he checked himself, //the baby.//

Who was absolutely Kayla, and Jono had been thinking of her as such for months now.

[sharp_as_knives]

Yes, and don't think Hannibal had missed that. But there were other things of more interest at the moment. "Disembowel?"

[furnaceface]

//He got better,// Jono replied, shrugging. //I was a little preoccupied at the time myself, but I do remember that they broke up for a while over it. Some people take being eviscerated quite seriously, I suppose.//

Jonothon couldn't understand why.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Those of us who have them do tend to prefer to keep them," Hannibal answered. "What had you preoccupied?"

[furnaceface]

//All of the other demons trying to kill us. Getting Raven free. And then, afterward...//

Jono shrugged.

//Raven and I had been dating, back then. But I was the one who dealt her the final, killing blow when Trigon corrupted her. It... took me some time to come around to being around people again. Especially Raven, freshly back from the dead.//

He had been preoccupied and it was complicated.

[sharp_as_knives]

"This was at that same time, then." Hannibal got up to put a hand on Jono's shoulder. "I'd be more concerned if you had shrugged it off immediately."

[furnaceface]

//It was... close, yes,// Jono confirmed. //There was a bit of time before we realized she wasn't dead anymore. Just enough time to stew over it, I suppose.//

He'd killed her with his face. It wasn't really any wonder the boy still had issues about his powers.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Would you like to talk about it?" Hannibal asked. "How did it start?"

[furnaceface]

//It started with Raven acting not quite like herself,// Jono replied. //Looking more tired, getting more jumpy. And insisting it was just stress.//

A wrinkled nose and a furrowed brow suggested just what he thought of that.

//At least she's learned her lesson about telling bold-faced lies when people confront her about it, since. Now we only have to pester her for a while before she tells anybody that she's worried.//

Still... not optimal. But an improvement.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I haven't noticed her being more tired or jumpy," Hannibal said. "Just more intense in some ways. She has, however, been under a great deal of stress, so some of that may be expected."

He shook his head. "We need a way to determine how much is her and how much may be coming from another source. The psychic equivalent of a Faraday cage. Do you know if there is such a thing?"

[furnaceface]

//Not certain,// Jono admitted, after a moment's pause. //Every telepath has some equivalent of a shielding system in their head, some stronger than others. Raven's got something similar, as an empath, but that doesn't make any such thing impregnable. Lord knows, I've had my head hacked into enough. All it takes is somebody stronger or more clever who has the means to get in.//

He hiked his shoulders up a little, in a shrug.

//All I know is, until well after she acts on things, it doesn't occur to her that there's anything the matter with what she's done. And that little something that's close-but-not-quite-Raven that I could sense while I was in there, she can't detect at all.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"That is probably the most worrying. Could you create your own shielding system around her? If nothing else, it might tell you if there's something in the way, something reaching in that a shield would, for lack of better terms, bump into."

Hannibal was working with scientific models for this; you would have to forgive him. They didn't teach psychic phenomena at any schools he'd gone to.

He might have to rectify that.

[furnaceface]

//I could try,// Jono allowed, //though maintaining a telepathic shield requires focus. If it was in my own head, I'd be able to half-ass it from time to time, to only barely focus on keeping it up... But in somebody else's? It could very well be a full-time job. A worthwhile one, of course, though it would have the potential to get very exhausting, very quickly.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Not long-term," Hannibal corrected. "But if you or someone else could shield her, then see if you feel anything passing through it, or if there's a difference in her mind, it might at least tell us what we're looking for with a bit more certainty."

[furnaceface]

//It sounds,// Jono noted, //like something more suited to a Black Widow's webs than to me. Though I could sense something else in there, I couldn't tell you where it had come from, or who it belonged to. I could probably try to follow after the source, but I've never attempted to span my consciousness across realities before.//

Part of him wasn't completely certain he'd survive the attempt.

//Another thing to suggest to Karla once she's got her Craft back, perhaps. She's already going to attempt to kill me once she learns I've already gone in for a peek, not knowing what I might find in there.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Ask her what she would have done in your place," Hannibal advised wryly. "That said, however, she is likely to attempt killing both of us if we keep this from her. I suspect she would rather know and worry now, than be kept in the dark."